Bui Natural Tofu is an unassuming storefront that sells fresh tofu, and products using their fresh tofu, to consumers. You may be slightly taken aback by the very simple interior and the lack of say, clear labeling, and packaging that mostly consists of saran wrap, but the people behind the counter are very friendly. Be adventureous and pick a few things even if you don't know exactly what's inside- after all it was just made that day, it's only a few bucks (or less), how bad can it be? And, look at some of the goodies we walked out with:
Addictive Vietnamese fried egg rolls… like potato chips, you just can't have one. Or two. I ate two before I started the car and had to go back in to get more… just like the lady had warned me.
We also got their fried lemongrass tofu to snack on, which didn't last more then the weekend
Also from Bui and ready to eat: shrimp tofu veg salad roll, or vegetarian tofu salad rolls. In this case, Pho PDX (which uses Bui tofu in their veggie rolls as well) beats out Bui's version. Though, I do really like Bui's dipping sauce. And, you can also get tofu which has been improved by being stuffed with meat.
The entire goal of visiting Bui however, was to get fresh tofu. We got two kinds: the plain original, and also green onion/mushroom tofu (the one with flecks). Both of these pan-fried well and had a wonderful fresh soy flavor to them that is much better then the packaged tofu you can usually get.
With one of the tofus, I sliced them up and ate them with baby bok choy with a sauce that had sesame oil, garlic, vegetable stock, vegetarian oyster sauce and sriracha. Turns out that the vegetarian oyster sauce is much saltier then real oyster sauce. The tofu was sauteed in hot chili oil.
I have recently had lots of interesting greens I have been preparing. For the past two weeks, I've been trying fiddlehead ferns, which taste like a mix of asparagus and woody like mushroom, though others say artichoke. Don't eat these raw as they are bitter and can cause lots of digestion problems up to food poisoning. I usually clean them carefully, a quick blanch, and then sauteed and eaten on their own with rice or pasta to really enjoy the delicate flavors. The first picture is just the fiddlehead ferns in olive oil with a touch of minced garlic. The second is from the following week, when I made sure that the fiddleheads got to al dente during the blanch process and then mixed them with pasta, Sicilian olive oil, a touch of red pepper flakes and grated Causse Noir cheese- I thought the play with the shapes would be fun on the tongue and it could be a plate of spirals.
Nettles are similar in that they are also foraged, and best prepared with a bit of washing to make sure all the dirt is gone, then blanch or you can steam them or parboil if you are cooking them a second time like I did. I did these sauteed with shitakes, just like what I had tasted at Springwater Farm's booth on Saturday (both the nettles and mushrooms were from that stand)- and Kathryn provides even more recipes here. Nettles taste and have the texture that is a bit like spinach, but healthier with superfood benefits such as aiding allergies, arthritis and joint pain, it's a diuretic, can help treat anemia and decrease risk of skin disorders, can have effects of lowering blood pressure and blood sugar, and more. And that's not even the list of vitamins and elements it contains.
Of course, spinach also doesn't need to be prepared so that it doesn't sting you- which nettles can, so when washing them instead of being able to handle them like the fiddleheads, it's a lot of shaking and panning with a sieve to sift out the dirt. I don't touch them until after the parboil. But, if you get a sting, take comfort possibly in the story that Caesar’s Roman troops supposedly used nettle from England and used the spines for warmth. Touching the stingers on the nettle plant causes an allergic reaction that is probably like a localized histamine release, thus producing a burning sensation that you feel from the sting and keeping you warm (that can last minutes or a day depending on individual sensitivity) if you decided to whip yourself with nettle I guess! Just because a plant is full of little spikes that act like like tiny hypodermic needles that break off when you brush against it and release toxins doesn't mean someone, somewhere, didn't find a way to eat it anyway.
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